Subject
RES: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: from Ron Rosenbaum re Botkin,
Oswald and Hochard]
Oswald and Hochard]
From
Date
Body
JM: Hello, Ron Rosenbaum, Eric Hyman, List,
A few months ago I realized the similar ending of both names Botkin and
Pushkin.
There's a lot to decompose ( bot=ambassador ; kin=relative; push= shove
.aso)
No one would associate a mad Russian to Pushkin but, perhaps, there's a
convoluted inroad towards VN's most important Russian poet set in connection
to John Shade. Eric Hyman just noted: " Or maybe someone with expertise in
Russian verse might elucidate whether Shade's practice is inherited via VN
from Russian precedents, especially Pushkin." This might be one of the ways
to explore that!
It seems strange to me that Nabokov would mention Browning, Pope, Swift,
Eliot. and leave out Pushkin, particularly if his competitiveness would urge
him towards this kind of model excellence.
De: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] Em nome de
Nabokv-L
Enviada em: quinta-feira, 26 de agosto de 2010 15:47
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: from Ron Rosenbaum re Botkin, Oswald and Hochard]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
from Ron Rosenbaum re Botkin, Oswald and Hochard
Date:
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:24:49 -0700
From:
palefire30 <mailto:palefire30@YAHOO.COM> <palefire30@YAHOO.COM>
To:
<mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Dear List Members,
I'd like to thank G S Lipon for understanding the significance of my
discovery of a Moscow hopital that housed the insane called Botkin or
Botkinskaya in operation long before PF was published. I'm not sure it's a
"great find", but I did think it added, as he puts it, to the "richness of
the semantic web" of the novel and, to my mind, may indeed have suggested
Botkin's (a Russian and a madman) name to VN.
I regret Laurence Hochard's misapprehension that I was making a connection
between Lee Harvey Oswald as assassin and the assassin in Nabokov's novel.
It was only becaus I was browsing recent conspiracy theory literature on the
JFK assasination for a film project that I came upon the name Botkin
Hospital where Oswald was taken after a suicide attempt. It didn't occur to
me anyone would make Mr. Hochard's imputed link, in fact it didn't occur to
me to connect Oswald with the assassination in PF at all (and I certainly am
aware that the 1963 JFK killing postdated 1962 PF). But I congratulate Mr.
Hochard on the richness of his imagination in turning up an amusing
coincidence however irrelevant.
I think I owe the list an explantion for what might seem to be an inordinate
interest in Botkin. I just find VN's comments that Kinbote is Botkin one of
the most mysterious and unexplored aspects of the novel. Why Botkin, why the
regression from Kinbote to Botkin? It seems there is much material for
discussion about this question which I'm sure I could learn much from, from
some list members, but it has been diverted, alas, by what I regard as the
ungrounded theories of the Shadeans and Hazel Shadeans.
So does anyone have a theory about Botkin's significance. An obvious
humoroulsy self deprecating VN figure, one could say, but why the need? What
dos it say about VN's self image in reltation to Kinbote?
Search the archive
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A few months ago I realized the similar ending of both names Botkin and
Pushkin.
There's a lot to decompose ( bot=ambassador ; kin=relative; push= shove
.aso)
No one would associate a mad Russian to Pushkin but, perhaps, there's a
convoluted inroad towards VN's most important Russian poet set in connection
to John Shade. Eric Hyman just noted: " Or maybe someone with expertise in
Russian verse might elucidate whether Shade's practice is inherited via VN
from Russian precedents, especially Pushkin." This might be one of the ways
to explore that!
It seems strange to me that Nabokov would mention Browning, Pope, Swift,
Eliot. and leave out Pushkin, particularly if his competitiveness would urge
him towards this kind of model excellence.
De: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] Em nome de
Nabokv-L
Enviada em: quinta-feira, 26 de agosto de 2010 15:47
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: from Ron Rosenbaum re Botkin, Oswald and Hochard]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
from Ron Rosenbaum re Botkin, Oswald and Hochard
Date:
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:24:49 -0700
From:
palefire30 <mailto:palefire30@YAHOO.COM> <palefire30@YAHOO.COM>
To:
<mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Dear List Members,
I'd like to thank G S Lipon for understanding the significance of my
discovery of a Moscow hopital that housed the insane called Botkin or
Botkinskaya in operation long before PF was published. I'm not sure it's a
"great find", but I did think it added, as he puts it, to the "richness of
the semantic web" of the novel and, to my mind, may indeed have suggested
Botkin's (a Russian and a madman) name to VN.
I regret Laurence Hochard's misapprehension that I was making a connection
between Lee Harvey Oswald as assassin and the assassin in Nabokov's novel.
It was only becaus I was browsing recent conspiracy theory literature on the
JFK assasination for a film project that I came upon the name Botkin
Hospital where Oswald was taken after a suicide attempt. It didn't occur to
me anyone would make Mr. Hochard's imputed link, in fact it didn't occur to
me to connect Oswald with the assassination in PF at all (and I certainly am
aware that the 1963 JFK killing postdated 1962 PF). But I congratulate Mr.
Hochard on the richness of his imagination in turning up an amusing
coincidence however irrelevant.
I think I owe the list an explantion for what might seem to be an inordinate
interest in Botkin. I just find VN's comments that Kinbote is Botkin one of
the most mysterious and unexplored aspects of the novel. Why Botkin, why the
regression from Kinbote to Botkin? It seems there is much material for
discussion about this question which I'm sure I could learn much from, from
some list members, but it has been diverted, alas, by what I regard as the
ungrounded theories of the Shadeans and Hazel Shadeans.
So does anyone have a theory about Botkin's significance. An obvious
humoroulsy self deprecating VN figure, one could say, but why the need? What
dos it say about VN's self image in reltation to Kinbote?
Search the archive
<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en%0d%0a>
Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
Visit <http://www.nabokovonline.com> "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Zembla
View Nabokv-L <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Policies
Manage subscription <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/